The FBI will help investigate the shooting of a Sikh man who was attacked by a gunman as he worked on his car in his suburban Seattle driveway, authorities said Sunday.

Kent Police Chief Ken Thomas said no arrests have yet been after the victim was shot in the arm Friday night about 20 miles south of Seattle. The suspect allegedly told the man to "go back to your own country."

Advertisement

"This is a top priority investigation, and we are doing everything possible to identify and arrest the suspect," Thomas said in an email, adding that the city of about 120,000 should "be vigilant."

Story background

A Sikh man was shot in the arm in a suburban Seattle driveway on Friday, police say

Police are still searching for the shooter

The victim, told police a man he didn't know came up to him Friday night and they got into an argument, with the suspect telling the man to go back to his homeland. The victim described the shooter as 6 feet tall and white with a stocky build, police said. He said the man was wearing a mask covering the lower half of his face.

The shooting comes after an Indian man was killed and another wounded in a recent shooting at a Kansas bar that federal agencies are investigating as a hate crime after witnesses say the suspect yelled "get out of my country."

"With recent unrest and concern throughout the nation, this can get people emotionally involved, especially when (the crime) is directed at a person for how they live, how they look," Kent police Cmdr. Jarod Kasner told The News Tribune of Tacoma.

India's foreign minister, Sushma Swaraj, identified the victim on Twitter early Sunday, saying, "I am sorry to know about the attack on Deep Rai, a U.S. national of Indian origin."

She said she had spoken to Rai's father, who told her Rai is out of danger and recovering in a hospital.

Sikhs have previously been the target of assaults in the U.S. After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the backlash that hit Muslims around the country expanded to include those of the Sikh faith.

Male observant Sikhs often cover their heads with turbans, which are considered sacred, and refrain from shaving their beards. The faith comes from South Asia's Punjab region.

In 2012, a man shot and killed six Sikh worshippers and wounded four others at a Sikh temple near Milwaukee before killing himself.

The Sikh Coalition, a national civil rights group, asked local and federal authorities to investigate the shooting in suburban Seattle as a hate crime.

Sikh community responds

Hira Singh, a Sikh community leader, said there have been increasing complaints recently from Sikhs near Seattle who say they have been the target of foul language or other comments.

"This kind of incident shakes up the whole community," he said, adding that about 50,000 members of the faith live in Washington state.

Jasmit Singh, a Sikh community leader in the nearby suburb of Renton, said Rai and his family were rattled.

"We're all kind of at a loss in terms of what's going on right now, this is just bringing it home," Singh told the newspaper. "The climate of hate that has been created doesn't distinguish between anyone."

Fear, hurt and disbelief weighed on the minds of those who gathered at a Sikh temple Sunday after the shooting.

"Everybody who is part of this community needs to be vigilant," Satwinder Kaur, a Sikh community leader, said as several hundred people poured into a temple in Renton for worship services about one mile from Friday night's shooting.